Mawza Exile

The Mawza Exile was a forced deportation in 1679 of Yemen's Jewish communities from urban centers across the country to the barren coastal region of Mawza by Zaydi Imam al-Mahdi Ahmad, resulting in severe hardships and high mortality from starvation, disease, and exposure.

The decree stemmed from the Imam's suspicions that Jews were aiding Ottoman Turkish efforts to regain control of Yemen or from responses to Jewish messianic activities amid Zaydi-Ottoman tensions, culminating in threats of conversion or banishment that the Jews rejected. Exiles endured theft of property, destruction of homes, and dire conditions in Mawza's arid terrain, with contemporary accounts by poet Shalom Shabazi vividly describing the hunger, thirst, and deaths, including those of prominent rabbis.